The Almighty is merciful. Tonight that great mercy is made manifest. It’s the last GOP debate. Thank you Lord.

Tonight we will see if Little Marco takes our advice. If Little Marco does not, Little Marco will, like his father, end his life as a bartender (maybe in short shorts and maybe, because the Almighty has a great sense of humor, in a Trump hotel and resort). It’s lights out for Little Marco tonight.

Tonight, we will also see if Teddy Bear Cruz continues to insult Donald Trump voters as “low information”. Teddy Bear Cruz is such a charmer. Cruz is more serpentine than snake charmer. Insults against voters rarely expand support although they do help the insulted to rally against the snake who insults them. Tonight for Teddy, it’s back into the straw basket for a good coil.

Tonight, we will see John Kasich deliver the mail. He will be that exciting. Most of us wait on the mailman with anticipation – for the package or letter delivered. But John Kasich thinks we wait on the mail for the joy of the mailman’s appearance. This postman always rings twice even when once is more than enough. It’s been long past time for John Kasich to hang up his bag and head on over to the local bar for a brewski. Try Cheers Johnny boy. Tonight, it’s “Return to Sender”.

Tonight, Donald J. Trump should emerge from backstage with a box of Trump steaks, a couple of bottles of Trump Champagne, and maybe a Trump vodka bottle. Trump should give each of the men on stage parting gifts of the above, maybe some bottles of water for Little Marco, a warm smile, and ask them all to sing a chorus or two of the Carol Burnett theme song “I’m so glad we had this time together… it’s time to say so long.”

Tonight, it is count the tick-tocks on the clock time, for Donald Trump. Tonight, the rumor is that Dr. Ben Carson will endorse Donald Trump tomorrow. Next week at this time Trump will be the GOP nominee, no matter how many delusional tantrums Teddy and the Cruzers indulge in. Tonight, Trump opens the Champagne bottles.

Tonight, as next week, the big loser will be Mitt Romney and the GOP establishment. Donald Trump has exposed them all for what they are: self-interested self-dealing double-crossing losers.

Tonight, Donald J. Trump begins his general election campaign – unless Ted Cruz, Little Marco, or John Kasich decide they want to rumble and Trump has to teach them the game of “Sorry”, again.

The last GOP debate will be on CNN. 8:30 p.m. ET. We’ll watch, maybe comment, then pop a bottle of Pink bubbly open. The suffering will soon be over.

f there was still any doubt whether the Trump juggernaut can be stopped before, if not so much after the Michigan primary earlier this week, it can be laid to rest now because shortly after Trump received the endorsement of Chris Christie, the real estate mogul has now secured his second highest profile backing, that of Ben Carson who according to the Washington Post will endorse Trump officially on Friday morning.

If Donald Trump wins the Republican Party nomination, his path to the White House will run through this working-class city with a knack for picking presidents.

No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio. And nowhere better reflects the challenges and opportunities Trump faces in his 2016 presidential quest than Canton, a once-booming industrial city that, like Ohio and the rest of America’s rust belt, is going through profound economic and demographic change.

Canton, a gritty northeastern Ohio city where the once-dominant steel industry has been in decline for 20 years, is the heart of Stark County, a political bellwether that, save twice, has picked every winning presidential candidate since 1964.

The real-estate mogul’s primary wins in Michigan and in Mississippi on Tuesday, in the face of blistering attacks from the party’s establishment, expanded his lead in the White House nominating race and demonstrated his broad appeal across many demographic groups in the Republican Party. [snip]

If Trump wins Ohio and Florida — states rich in the delegates who select their party’s nominee at July’s Republican National Convention – he would almost certainly lock up his party’s nomination.

Sitting in a steel workers’ meeting at their Canton union hall, Curtis Green, the chapter’s vice president, described Trump’s support among a growing number of members as their “dirty little secret.”

“I view him as a radical and a racist and I don’t want to be affiliated with that,” Green said. “But if you say what you mean, a lot of guys see that in Trump and they respect that. He doesn’t dance around the issues, he takes them head on. There are a fair amount of our members who do support Donald Trump.” [snip]

In this city of 72,500 people, Trump’s denunciation of free trade, political correctness and illegal immigrants is resonating among some traditionally Democratic blue-collar steel workers.

“The labor unions, who usually support the Democrats, a lot of our members, and a lot of their families, are supporting Trump,” said Keith Strobelt, a political director for the United Steelworkers local union in Canton. Strobelt does not support Trump.

Canton’s local United Steelworkers union has 1,800 members – down from 6,700 at its peak 30 years ago. Its leadership has not officially endorsed a candidate, thought it has praised Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders. Some rank-and-file members, however, say they better identify with Trump’s broadsides against illegal immigration and tirades against trade with China and Mexico.

“It could be that several hundred of our members will back Trump,” Strobelt said. “A lot find him refreshing. He says a lot of things they say around their dinner tables.” [snip]

Democratic strategists say that despite the demographic changes, Trump could still prevail.

Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist, cites Trump’s dominant performance in the Republican primary in Massachusetts on March 1. Although not a rust belt state, Trump won big in heavily blue collar, union cities.

“Trump put together a coalition in Massachusetts that elects Democratic governors. He won among Catholics, a week after picking a fight with the Pope. I absolutely think he can put the rust belt into play,” she said.

If she loses Florida, she is done. Down here in South Florida (Dade, Broward and South Palm Beach County) the Clintons’ have always been loved. Sanders may do well in the middle of the state further north as the major Universities like UCF are in Orlando and UF a bit north in Gainesville) have like 120k students…UM is relatively a small private school in Miami where I went to law school. Hillary should do well, but after Michigan, who hell knows anything.

I had the strangest call from Judicial Watch. Some time ago I told them to take me off their mailing list over their persecution of Hillary, while they gave BO a free pass. Well today’s call was a conference call. They were discussing the immunity granted over Hillary’s email. I listened for a while out of curiosity. It was very ugly and strange. These people had desperation in their voices about getting Hillary indited before she could get the nomination. It was surreal. They were pledging money and getting all worked up. And all I could think of was how petty they were, looking at all the illegal activities of BO, that he as a free pass for. I am so pissed off.

I have lost all respect for Judicial Watch. What I heard was just plain sick.

Donald Trump’s rivals have one last shot at tripping up the frontrunner before the winner-take-all primaries kick off — and it comes Thursday night in Miami.

The stakes are highest for Marco Rubio and John Kasich, who may not survive past next week if they don’t win their home-state contests of Florida and Ohio on Tuesday.

Things are looking especially dire for Rubio. His campaign has endured relentless questions about whether he’ll drop out before Tuesday, despite Rubio’s fierce denials, and every recent Florida poll has shown him badly trailing Trump.

And on Wednesday the candidate himself copped to regret about his own recent role in the deteriorating tone of the 2016 race. Ahead of the March 1 contests, Rubio assumed Trump’s signature style, launching personal insults that ranged from hitting the Manhattan businessman on everything from his spray tan to the size of his hands.

It didn’t pay off – he’s only won Minnesota and Puerto Rico so far, and has less than a third of Trump’s delegates.

“I’m not telling you he didn’t deserve it, but that’s not who I am and that’s not what I want to be,” Rubio said to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

But that doesn’t mean Rubio is going to give Trump any sort of pass on the CNN debate stage Thursday night. [snip]

If Cruz looks to build on his momentum, Rubio is seeking to stop the bleeding. He hasn’t been awarded any delegates from Tuesday’s contests, and his support fell to single digits in some states.

In the last debate, Cruz and Rubio teamed up to take on Trump, but in the days leading up to this one, Cruz has signaled his desire to knock Rubio out of the race by driving him to a loss in Florida.

Cruz campaigned in Rubio’s Miami backyard on Wednesday as he looked to make inroads with the influential Cuban-American bloc of voters in South Florida that comprise Rubio’s base. Cruz will campaign again in Orlando on Friday.

The running commentary from one of the stewards of the Obama legacy gets deep under the campaign’s skin.

A second debate unfolded online Wednesday night as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed on the Miami debate stage.

This one featured David Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s former top adviser, who logged on to his Twitter account to correct the record against the former secretary of state as she doubled-down on her claim that Sanders had voted against the auto industry bailout.

“She did it again and I’ll say it again. It’s misleading to imply that TARP II was an auto bailout bill,” Axelrod tweeted after Clinton argued for the second consecutive debate that “if everyone had voted as he voted, we would not have rescued the auto industry.”

The unprompted defense of Sanders, from one of the stewards of Obama’s legacy, was as undermining of Clinton’s argument as anything the Vermont senator said on stage to justify his own position. Yet by calling out Clinton on the substance of her attack, Axelrod occupied a role that’s become all too familiar — and all too annoying — to the Clinton campaign.

As a CNN senior political correspondent, host of his own podcast and Twitter junkie, Axelrod has become Clinton’s backseat driver, quick to point out flaws and offer unsolicited advice.

In particular, Bill Clinton — often the easiest person to provoke when it comes to criticism of his wife—has been “very worked up about it,” said a source close to the campaign. [snip]

“Too forced?” He tweeted when Clinton ended a Democratic debate last December with a reference to the blockbuster “Star Wars” sequel hitting the theaters, remarking, “Thank you, and may The Force be with you.”

On television, Axelrod has argued that Clinton’s use of a personal email server at the State Department did not show good judgment. And online he has criticized her surrogates for chastising young women who support Sanders as “way off key.”

The running commentary from the operative who helped defeat Clinton in 2008, but then went on to embrace her as part of the Obama administration, manages to get deep under the campaign’s skin.

Perhaps the one that made Bill Clinton the angriest: A tweet last February, in reference to a POLITICO article about internal frustrations with the campaign operation after the blowout loss in New Hampshire—“When the exact same problems crop up in separate campaigns, with different staff, at what point do the principals say, ‘Hey, maybe it’s US?”

admin
March 10, 2016 at 8:20 pm
We’ll say it again, Hillary’s big enemy is Obama and his minions:
——-
I was not sure until this, but I had my suspicions.

Murdock claimed that he knew who the dark horse candidate was.

As a member of the uniparty, I am sure he would.

There was no reason for Axelgrease to intervene on behalf of Sanders, if the goal was not to level the playing field against Hillary so their dark horse candidate who who is unknown, unnsullied, and unvetted, can be pulled out of the hat at the last minute. It is the Justice Souter strategy, by RINO Poppy Bush, head of the Bush Crime Family.

admin
March 10, 2016 at 8:00 pm
——–
Politico has access to ALL the inside information, but even so, they are not very good at reading the tea leaves, or in this case, they are not the first, but one of the last to figure it out.

Bush has met with Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday and plans to meet with Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Thursday before the Republican debate tomorrow night, a Bush aide confirmed to CBS News.

It’s unclear why Bush is meeting with the three contenders, but the fact that he’s not meeting with Trump signals he is trying to strengthen any efforts that could bring down the GOP frontrunner.

I wonder why Trump announced about Carson (in the debate just now and the website in comment above) instead of letting Carson do it tomorrow.

In listening to this debate so far, it’s all Trump issues – I wonder what these others would be campaigning on if they couldn’t jump on Trump’s wagon – and I wonder if inside he wants to jump up and down and say, those are MY ideas lol They wouldn’t even be issues if Trump hadn’t brought them up.

I think it’s good that Trump is showing a different side in a debate. He shows another side in interviews, the mature candidate who will discuss issues more deeply. But for the people who just watch debates, maybe they’ve never seen this side of him. I think in the final comment, he should quickly list the issues he started his campaign on and point out that the other candidates are now copying him, but that the fact that these are issues he started his campaign on, and has been on record in the past supporting, that he is the one who will actually act and not be the “all talk no action” politician he says politicians are.

Trump just mentioned he can’t believe how civil it has been. I imagine he’s alluding to the fact that these moderators aren’t trying to set them on each other. But I think he is being differently proactively as well, not just not having to “react” to attacks, because he isn’t making those silly faces (I’m not one who cares for that, I know some others like it).

I think he heard all the accusations about “not presidential” – he’s been saying lately, I can be presidential (he refers to it depending on the situation, which makes sense) – and he’s trying to show it.

Of course, the only way to really know would be if someone DID attack him, and he responded in a calm manner, instead of taking the bait. I do agree he has a bit of a glass jaw, but I do also believe he is able to control his behavior, his reactions.

Tapper’s turn to bait Trump. Asks about Trump and the GOP. Trump lauds himself as a good GOPer. Trump says he is different than GOP in one big matter: bad trade deals. Trump says he will fight for jobs in U.S. Trump says that is why he is loved and wins elections.

Tapper then goes to Cruz. Cruz attacks Trump on tariffs. Cites Smoot-Hawley. Trump puckers his lips trying to gain self control and not punch Cruz.

Trump responds substantively and says his proposal on 45% tariff is a “threat” not a tax. Trump says China better “behave” or else. That’s the threat.

Cruz, says the tariff will be paid by American consumer. Say’s Trump’s solution is not good.

Trump responds that the threat will be credible because then we can build factories here and make our own products here. Trump says China is a bubble.

Cruz making a big mistake fighting Trump on the trade. That’s where Trump is strong, and aside from the weirdos who listen to Mark Levin or Hush Bimbo on the radio, a majority of Americans can see the abandoned factories and understand who is right or wrong.

I often read the blog at lunchtime, but don’t comment because I’m not signed up to wordpress on my phone (plus, I don’t have gonzo’s fortitude to be trying to type on the phone lol). But on the last thread, which I haven’t read the rest of as a new thread was opened just before I got here, some people were continuing the discussion that they want specifics before they want to vote for someone.

I feel the question that has not been asked is, are you not voting for anyone then, or do you feel there IS a candidate who has been “specific” about how they are going to carry out what they are saying. I feel (and I could be wrong) that the implication is that Hillary IS giving those specifics, and I would disagree with that. I don’t feel that anyone is giving this kind of specifics.

And as was mentioned, for one thing, the candidates (especially the ONE non-politician) would need to get into office to know the depth and width of the problems, and secondly, to be too specific so early would open up unnecessary attacks and of course, other candidates copying everything you say and stealing your thunder.

Rubio now attacks. Says Trump talk does not help. Cites crescent moons at American cemeteries.

Trump responds “Marco talks about consequences” then talks about the consequences of political correctness in the face of terror attacks. Trump then says women are treated horribly by Islam. Trump says we better solve the problem.

Little Marco replies he is not interested in being “politically correct” but only wants to be “correct”. Wants to work with Muslims.

Kasich then takes the middle road between Little Marco and Trump, resulting in nap time for all.

So one one hand they want to excoriate Trump because he’s too much a bull in a china shop, but when he says he supports Israel but wants to approach deal making without first alienating Palestine, they’re attacking him anyway

I found it improbable if not impossible that Trump could survive his klutz-o-rama cascade of foot-in-mouth flubs, from carelessly categorizing Mexican immigrants as rapists to hallucinating about “thousands’ of Muslims cheering the fall of the twin towers from the mean streets of New Jersey.

Well, apparently the problem for her was (and still is) that she doesn’t research well. As we all know, he didn’t say MX immigrants, he said illegals, and he didn’t say ALL, he said some, and it’s easily confirmed – as the great Trump comeback earlier, “someone is doing that raping” (of the female illegal immigrants on the trip). And of course, many well respected NY/NJ people have confirmed that lots of people were celebrating, the ‘thousands’ refers to around the world. Too bad she can’t see her own biases.

Cruz what a ridiculous attack based on Trump’s silly joking with people to raise their hands and say they are going to vote for Trump – he tries to turn that into, the only hand raising will be me raising my hand swearing to take care of the country (or whatever jumbo he said). Cruz actually PAID someone to come up with that. FAIL.

Tapper tries to bait Trump again. This time it’s the trouble with protesters at some rallies. Trump dances around with his answer and slaps down Tapper. Trump bemoans problems but says the trouble comes from the “bad dudes” protesters.

Cruz then makes his reputation of Lyin’ Ted complete by attacking Trump at rallies asking people to swear they will vote for Trump.

Trump replies that his rallies are fun and that is why his rallies are bigger than Lyin’ Ted’s.

He asks a couple loaded questions to try to show Trump is promoting violence, and when he does not get the answers he wants he (Tapper–the quintessential yuppy scumbag) turns to Cruz for help on the issue.

I dont see Rubio winning, but the talking heads will call it for him.
Even the commenters at ACE are saying generally speaking, that Trump is doing well, upset over Cruz not producing and sounding lame on the economy.
Funny line
Trump will have a Space Ship named after him when it is all said and done
Cruz will have a stapler named after him…

Kasich says it’s not over yet for himself. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Trump says he will have the delegates. But, there are only 2 that can now get sufficient delegates. Trump says whoever has the most delegates even if not the requisite number, should get the nomination.

Cruz says only the contenders should win, either “Donald or myself”. Cruz then says Trump loses to Hillary and that he has beaten Trump repeatedly.

Trump replies to Cruz. Trump says “I beat him in 13 contests.” Trump says he has more votes than Cruz.

Rubio says Tuesday’s results disappointed him. Then Rubio tells a story about some guy who carries a Rubio sign everywhere. Then more inspirational stuff.

Enough with candidates and their cherry picked personal stories that some staffer searched the newspapers or something to bring to them. It was meaningful once upon a time, but always sounds so manipulative now (IMO)

Cruz trying to deflect the question, instead of answering why should we believe he won’t be swayed by donors, attacks Trump and Hillary for their years of donating to people for influence. Answer the question, funny face. (sorry Barbra)

hey gonzo, one time not too long ago you responded to me and referred to your screen name and said it shows your hispanic heritage, I think is what you were saying – but I didn’t understand (I knew because you mentioned your heritage years ago) – but I don’t know what gonzo means…? I’m curious now lol

Got to rresent though, kids are mixed, daughter looks Hispanic but 6 feet tall, gorgeous. Son looks more like me, but I am dark skinned also.
You know the hispanic chick on the 5? She looks alot like her, but shes 5’2.
They are actually Spanish, not Mexican.

I think it’s so low-blow to blame Trump for a supporter punching a protester. I believe that we are all responsible for our own behavior, I don’t go in for people blaming another person’s words for their own violence. BUT it’s silly to blame Trump, especially when they aren’t talking about the context. Was this protester being violent first, maybe shoving? You can’t look at it in a vacuum, and then blame Trump who wasn’t even there. It could be the supporter hit the protester because he just felt like it… and that’s what they were basically implying tonight I think…. but what is the whole story…?

Oh I just turned on Megan Kelly and she is showing video of the punch… an older guy punched a black guy… they seemed to be marching the protesters down the aisle.. and this guy jumped out of the seats and cold punched the guy. So that’s not cool.

One of the people on the panel just mentioned that the protesters don’t come to be peaceful.

Megan’s going to milk this though. But I’m turning the channel, I don’t watch her anymore.

Trump, goes to the practical and says “be smart and unify” embrace the millions he has brought in.
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Reading your comments it looks to me like Trump accomplished his mission–acted presidential, did not get down in the weeds, counter attacked with a scapel rather than a meat axe, spoke in terms of we, and told the elites it is time to unify. If that is an accurate summation of what you all observed watching it live (which I did not), then I think he positioned himself as well as possible for next week. I can tell you that the elites I know are rather glum at this point. Their dog in a manger routine its growing thin. They talk and talk and talk about wanting a bigger tent, but when a candidate appears who is trying to give them one, they turn up their nose–which for them is as natural as breathing. Truth to tell, they are not going to have the same control over the party that they did in the past, regardless of how the cards fall. They are in a position to negotiate with Trump, and not break the pledge of support their party entered into. But for them, the only thing that counts is the vision, and if that is their position, and that the American People do not matter, then they need to be defrocked.

the middle finger is considered and act of threat to some people … I know if somebody shot the middle finger in my direction i would be highly po’ed… Protesters know what they are doing … nobody comes to trump rallies to see blm garbage disrupt an event ….

Shadowfax, Trump took their wallets, emptied their bank accounts, sold their houses, exhausted their credit cards, then Trump magnanimously invited them to have a cup of coffee. Cruz and Rubio said “gee thanks Don, you’re such a generous guy, um, can we at least have our wallets back, huh???” Trump says “sure, here are your wallets” as he tosses them into the middle of a high traffic street.

Trump can afford to be “generous” and “presidential”. Trump knows this thing is all over except for the voting. We knew this thing was over after South Carolina.

Above, Rush reiterates what Roger Stone said and I posted about Rule 40, the possibility that the establishment will screw Trump out of the nomination which will produce a massive walk out, chaos, and the loss of the Republican base. However he prognosticates that in the end, wiser heads will prevail.

I know you don’t think much of Peggy Noonan, but once in a while she says something sensible. Its probably just the law of averages. But what she said, and it stuck with me, is this: years ago, there were leaders of the Republican Party you could call on to arbitrate existential disputes such as this. Certainly Howard Baker had that skill set. But today, there are no elites with those skills. Today, you have only the donors. And those donors–this is my comment now, could give a rats ass about the party, or even country and they would rather see it crash than lose control. They think they could pick up the pieces, and people would accept them. It is more likely they would be hanged when they tried.

Vanity, I didn’t see anyone saying that hispanic is a race. It’s a political term created in the 70s. And most hispanics in the US are caucasian. But I do think that most people in the real world think it’s a race, and they’re really taught that by society, which treats it as if it were.

That reminds me, the most funny thing I ever heard was a US news broadcast, they were talking about blacks in Canada, and they referred to them as “African Americans” lol

All channels are dissing Trump, their focus groups loving Rubio, and, Cruz…business as usual
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It is hard to get a someone to understand the benefits of a Trump candidacy when their livelihood depends on them not understanding it.

Notice, for example, there is no diversity of opinion. It is a wall.

The best answer? We reserve the right to make up our own mind on matter, so butt out.

They have their opinion.

As we say in the Marine Corps, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Perhaps that is redundant, because these talking heads are assholes too.

I think that was all so well said. That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? She is not the candidate she was in 2008. All I would add is, I don’t think of it as happening after being SOS (and certainly not something she just started with *this* campaign, just to win.

The way I think of it is, we had a relatively short period of a campaign in which she was saying things we agreed with. But for the last 7 years, she has been someone else. That other Hillary was a looong time ago, for the *vast* majority of the last 8 years, she has been someone else. So maybe that’s just who she is, it’s certainly what she is telling us she is. I’m not going to hang my hat on political speeches of the 90s. I’m going with who she has been presenting herself as for the last 7 years.

Someone should tell those people on that Drudge poll site that it’s good they’re screwing up the stats to favor Cruz, it will just motivate more people to make sure they vote for Trump, they won’t assume he “has it” and sit home lol

I thought it was interesting that when Trump mentioned in the debate that he had been talking with Carson (and that Carson was going to endorse him tomorrow), he said they have been talking about education and that Carson has good ideas. Interesting that they’d go the education route and not medical….

He sees what the elites do not see namely that they are in BIG TROUBLE.

Yet, if you were to tell them that, the would laugh and call you a pip squeek.

Which is further proof of their arrogance, and their myopia.

The elites still think this is just a hiccup.

They are sure the American people will do the sensible thing.

And the sensible thing of course if to defer to their Harvard trained wisdom.

Which has contributed mightily to the new American reality

OF DOWNWARD MOBILITY—or, if you prefer, the great race to the bottom

And has made them fabulously wealth

A condition which people of limited means should worship

The elites are inclined to apply magic thinking to all this

Like we have nothing to fear but fear itself

Unfortunately for them, it is a bit more than that

As Goldman explains . . .
__________________

Trump Triumphed Due to Downward Mobility

For the past six months my Republican friends and I have watched Donald Trump’s ascendancy and asked ourselves whether the voters had gone crazy. The voters aren’t crazy. We in the Republican elite were crazy: we thought we could allow the American economy to remain a rigged game indefinitely. The voters think otherwise. That’s why Trump is winning. That’s also why Bernie Sanders, the least likely presidential candidate in living memory, gave Hillary Clinton a run for her money. If you don’t give people capitalism, the late Jude Wanniski used to say, they’ll take socialism.
Americans are shrewd. You can’t spit on them and tell them it’s raining. They know the game is rigged against them. They know it’s rigged the same way that they know a lottery is rigged: There aren’t any winners. They know that they are downwardly mobile because they aren’t upwardly mobile. Americans don’t mind playing against bad odds–they play the lottery all the time–but they think that they are playing against zero odds. Ordinary Americans had an outside chance to get rich until 2008. Now they have no chance at all.
Upward mobility is America’s gauge of well-being. It’s not the decline of median family income that gets under Americans’ skin, but the perception that the elites have pulled the ladder up behind them. During the quarter-century after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, it was only a slight exaggeration to say that someone in every family got rich. They bought a cable television franchise, started a website, got some stock in a high-flying tech company, flipped real estate, or ran a small business that became a big business. Inequality didn’t bother Americans as long as they had a chance at a winning ticket–not necessarily a fair chance, but at least the kind of chance that paid off occasionally for ordinary people. As long they could see that people like them were becoming rich, they kept playing the game

Americans tolerate a wealthy elite if and only if they can get in on the action, too. The cartelized, corrupted, closed wealth-creating mechanism of the past eight years shuts them out. The Republican base is out for blood. They want revenge on the elites that have shut them out of wealth creation. Pace Peggy Noonan, it has nothing to do with “protected” vs. “unprotected.” It’s about wannabe’s vs. be’s. And pace Bret Stephens, it has nothing to do with what Stephens calls “a new political wave sweeping the globe—leaders coming to power through democratic means while avowing illiberal ends” including Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Americans have different demands than Turks and Magyars.

I’ve made no secret of my preference for Ted Cruz, and still hope that he can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. He fielded an intelligent and disciplined campaign strategy which hasn’t worked out. Cruz counted on evangelical Protestants to buoy him in South Carolina, but most evangelicals voted for Trump instead. The evangelicals always have had a split personality, balancing a passion for social conservatism with the boosterism of the prosperity gospel. Evidently the evangelicals aren’t voting on conservative principles, as Cruz exhorted them to do.

Trump leapfrogged Cruz on immigration and security, offering sound-bites–build a wall on the Mexican border and stop Muslims from entering the country–that drowned out Cruz’ more nuanced positions. Cruz took stands against the Republican Establishment; Trump gave them a nonstop insult-comedy routine.

Downward mobility is the decisive issue in the 2016 elections. Unless Trump’s rivals can capture the imagination of the electorate with a vision of renewed upward mobility, Trump will take the nomination. A Clinton-Trump general election would be the dirtiest, nastiest, sleaziest and most divisive since the Civil War. In that case, God help the United States of America.

The idea that the establishment is promoting downward mobility for millions of people, thus creating a new feudalism, is a novel insight. And that this more than anything else should be the reason why the base rejects establishment figure even before they open their mouth. And, finally, that Donald should be the only candidate who speaks of upward mobility is why he has caught fire. This is why the nation has no interest in hearing from superannuated plutocrats like Romney, or bald headed maggots like Heilman. The lesson for Ted? If you want people to believe that his policies will make them successful, he must say that the way Trump does, unabashedly.

gonzotx
March 11, 2016 at 2:22 am
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Why do you think respected conservatives like Tom Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson, Rush Lindbaugh, and David Goldman all support Cruz, even now, and especially now.

The turning point for me was his support of TPP, the Goldman Sachs connection, and what happened in Iowa. To me that suggested what you see may not be what you get.

I believe conservatives will support Trump in the general election. What I do not believe is that the elites will do so–at the convention. They will vote for the democrat, partly out of spite, and partly because they believe they will benefit from the chaos that ensures.

They are as wrong about that as they have been wrong about everything else. If they force the issue, my guess is it will be the end of them–not Trump. Their batting average is hovering around zero.

Obama just threw Cameron and our UK allies under the Zamboni. Then ran over them.
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If it were anybody but Obama, I would call it justifiable homicide. Cameron is no damned good. If he fell in the Thames River that would be unfortunate, since he does not know how to swim. If someone rescued him from those icy waters, that would constitute treason.

I feel the same way about Cameron, but this is such a typical coward way of obama.
and the US press will be silent, as will his Co conspirators, the Republican Senate and House.
Never mind, the island was sinking when we thru the bust of Churchill back.
Just collecting dust old chap, nothing to see here, move on. Here, have a signed book of me and a few CD’s…no problem…

Trump needs to tell his groups that violen e will not be tolerated
——————————-
Maybe not so strongly, but the Trump spokesperson responded to the news about the incident to the effect that they make announcements at the beginning of the rallies, to leave the protestors alone.

The turning point for me was his support of TPP, the Goldman Sachs connection, and what happened in Iowa. To me that suggested what you see may not be what you get.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The TPP thing was never clear in my mind as to his role in supporting it – there was some confusion on my part. The GS thing lingered in the back of my mind, but the repeated dirty tricks on the campaign finally turned me off. I also figured Trump had it in him to display a little decorum but just wondered when it would come out. I’d still be OK with Cruz, but Trump is probably what we need at this time.

‘Ditch and switch’: Trump may be behind mass Democratic party exodus in Pa., experts say

… Needless to say, much of this movement is being attributed to the rise of Donald Trump and the so-called “Ditch and Switch” movement, which leans on lifelong Democrats to abandon the party, register Republican and help ensure Trump’s place in the November general election.
A website launched by two North Carolina sisters calling on Democrats to switch political parties and embrace Trump says, “For many years the Democratic Party has promoted agendas that most Americans did not agree with. Our country is deeply divided, and the silent majority has been bullied into silence by political posturing and underhanded agendas that favor the few while excluding the majority.”…

They really are not protestors who would be outside in a “protected speech” public property zone and who would have every right to be there. They are instead disruptors who want to censor others speech and disrupt the right to assemble in a private venue. But the professionals should handle their removal. And every Trump rally should just factor in 10 minutes or so of the disrupting censors being removed for trespassing at the beginning.

…This means we have an e-mail from a trusted Clinton adviser that claims the Saudis funded the Benghazi attack, and not only was this not followed up on, but there is not any record of this e-mail ever existing except for the Russia Today leak.

Why is this e-mail missing? At first I assumed it must be due to some sort of cover up, but it’s much simpler than that. The e-mail in question was sent after February 1st, 2013, when John Kerry took over as Secretary of State, so it was not part of the time period being investigated. No one is trying to find a copy of this e-mail. Since Clinton wasn’t Secretary of State on February 16th, it wasn’t her job to follow up on it.

So let’s forget for a minute about the larger legal implications of the e-mail investigation. How can it be that such a revelation about Saudi Arabia was made public in a leak that turned out to be real and no one looked into it? …

I have listened to Rush and Hannity several times just out of curiosity about where they and their audiences stood on Trump. It’s funny to hear them defend Trump against the establishment -reminding their listeners that the establishment rejects Cruz, as well. They are more than a little transparent – especially Shawn. He sometimes plays a montage of soundbites, and one or two of them will be scathing anti- Trump comments. Of course it’s meant to appear that Shawn is outraged about such comments, although he never refutes them.. I have noticed several other (not so) thinly veiled shots at DT. Rush has actually seemed more genuine in his praise of Donald for standing up to media than have Shawn and some of the other Tea Party commentators. But, As much as I detest Rush, who has a worse case of CDS than anyone, he’s smart. Hannityy is not. Both love their Teddy Bear. And, they’re doing their best (but failing) to appear objective, while still sending a pro-Cruz message to their listeners.

imho…the main thing that is freaking out and scaring the hell out of the establishment and donor class is that…

Donald Trump as President will be the People’s IRS,/b> if you will, and Donald plans to get in there with his business acumen and do an AUDIT on behalf of the American people on all Government agencies…and take a lazer focus and spotlight with him to examine all the government balance sheets and budgets…

they, the corrupt establishment know, that Donald, with a mandate from the American people, will go in there and turn over every rock and kill every corrupt snake he finds to, in effect, let new and healthy grass…or prosperity…grow once again for the USA

they, the corrupt establishment know and fear, that the Donald is not afraid to torpedo the corruption that has been going on within our government…and that Donald will relish being a one man wrecking ball with no cares for this special interest’s sacred cow or that special interest’s gravy train…

they, the encompassing corrupt carbal, fear that Donald by his actions will become the personification of campaign finance reform and put a big dent…or end for some…to the cycle that just continues to launder the hard working American taxpayer’s money to unproductive “contracts” that go back in the pockets of the ‘donor class’ which then go back to the politican’s as donor contributions for elections, the same donors who said politicians have given the contracts and allowed for wasteful spending that watches shrimps on treadmills and the like…

…all the while our country is going into astronomical debt and our jobs and american companies are fleeing our shores to other lands that continue to line the pockets of the ‘donor class’ which will then contribute to the facilitating corrupt politicians…the cycle of corruption and deprivation of the American taxpayer

YES, the fear of this cycle being broken by Donald Trump is what has created the desperate Anti-Trump movement…

To their everlasting credit the American voters sensed there was something wrong with early 21st century globalism long before the pundits detected the error. They understood, better than anyone that the future depended upon renewing principal-agent loyalty rather than betraying it.
———-
The Market-State Concept Revisited Part 2
BY RICHARD FERNANDEZ MARCH 11, 2016 CHAT 17 COMMENTS

Disrupted by technology
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams regarded the possibility that Britain was morphing into something fundamentally different with some dread. In his Dimbleby lecture Williams said: “what I want to explore … is the suggestion … that we’re in … a period where the basic assumptions about how states work are shifting … that we are witnessing the end of the nation state, and that the nation state is being replaced in the economically developed world by what some call the ‘market state’.”

the nation state … promises … both a piece of territory and a fairly homogeneous community … based on a firm directive hand in the economy and a safety net of public welfare provision … and its success in managing this was the obvious foundation of its claim to be obeyed. …
What happens, though, when the state no longer seems to have the power to keep its side of the bargain? … the American strategist and historian Philip Bobbitt … sees our present context … has led to a shift into a new political mode, the market state, in which the function of government – and the thing that makes government worth obeying – is to clear a space for individuals or groups to do their own negotiating, to secure the best deal or the best value for money in pursuing what they want. It involves deregulation; the ‘franchising’ of various sorts of provision – from private prisons to private pensions – and the withdrawal of the state from many of those areas where it used to bring some kind of moral pressure to bear. It means that government is free to encourage enterprise but not to protect against risk; to try and increase the literal and metaphorical purchasing power of citizens

Williams argued that while the promised market state might bring more consumer benefits it might also cause a loss of community, echoing Winston Churchill’s conviction that “not only individual death, which is the universal experience” is to be feared, “but, incomparably more commanding, the life of Britain, her message, and her glory.”

But the problem went beyond Williams’ concerns. The road to the market state led not to the Emerald City but the wilderness of atavistic theocracies, nationalistic authoritarianisms and declining individual opportunities, much to the dismay of those who expected the path to be smoother. The last Belmont Club post argued the problem was caused by a principal-agent conflict in politicians whose loyalties were divided between transnational institutions and lobbies and the their traditional constituencies.

This post argues that a successful transition to the market-state requires a solution to the principal-agent problem else it will fail. In the nation-state the problem of divergence of interests is solved by culture, religion and racial homogeneity. But where those factors have been gravely weakened the conflict can only be solved by a strategy that forcibly aligns the interests of bureaucrats with the success of its populations.

There is arguably only one proto-market-state country in the world: the United States. Yet president Obama, perhaps from habit, persists in acting like the head of a nation-state writ large called the “international order”. In an long interview in the Atlantic with Jeffrey Goldberg Obama expressed his disappointment with the international order in terms which illustrate how, in trying to be the president of everyone he has succeeded in making himself the president of none, perhaps failing to see that leading a market-state is different from just being an old style politician with international extensions.

In recent days, the president has taken to joking privately, “All I need in the Middle East is a few smart autocrats.” Obama has always had a fondness for pragmatic, emotionally contained technocrats, telling aides, “If only everyone could be like the Scandinavians, this would all be easy.” …
Obama modulates his discussion of terrorism for several reasons: He is, by nature, Spockian. And he believes that a misplaced word, or a frightened look, or an ill-considered hyperbolic claim, could tip the country into panic. The sort of panic he worries about most is the type that would manifest itself in anti-Muslim xenophobia. (snip)

To their everlasting credit the American voters sensed there was something wrong with early 21st century globalism long before the pundits detected the error. They understood, better than anyone that the future depended upon renewing principal-agent loyalty rather than betraying it.

Many of the mistakes of Western leaders can now be seen as the result of applying 20th century leadership style to a proto-market-state age. This miscalculation is particularly dangerous because disruptive technological developments are descending on the world faster than political leaders can mentally cope with them. Perhaps the most potent of these are artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. These two apps, together may hold the key to nuclear proliferation and the solution to terrorism, yet may also prove to be the greatest threat to the existence of the human race.

Arthur C. Clarke once remarked that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” How well the world transitions from the paradigms of the 20th century to those of the 21st will determine whether the future belongs to a society of magicians or a prison camp of slaves or barbarians in possession of magical objects. Perhaps the last role of the historical state will be assert human control over its own creations. One thing’s for sure: it’s wasted on simply providing jobs to timeservers in bureaucracies (note: my comment: which recent changes in the Harvard Law School curriculum aimed at fielding a race of global bureaucrats, makes clear)

Well, Richard’s article confirms what I have been saying for a long time here. First and foremost, we have an agency problem, wherein the agent has gone rogue on constitutents, marching not to their drum but to the drum of international bankers and bureaucrats. That point is now obvious. Second, insofar as the clear direction is away from the nation state and in the direction of the market states, the elites have botched the transition horribly. In any merger, and that is what this is, it is critical to think through the transition, that is, the intermediate step between the current state, i.e. status quo, and the ideal,or desired state. That is the step where, more often than not, businesss mergers fail. Deal heat subsides and everyone begins to ask wherethefugarewe. The elites believed, wrongly, that they could muscle this transition through by creating brush fires and exploiting the fault lines in society. Frankly, that part was the role of Obama–given his Spokian nature, and his Alysnski training, and his hatred of white America, he was just the man to do it. And instead of blowing the whistle big media went along with this nefarious scheme. Want to test that proposition? Tell me where in big media there has been so much as a whisper about the misgivings expressed by the Archibishop of Cantebery about the loss of the nation state. Neery a word? Right? It is CENSORED by a media that tells us it is all for freedom the press. If you want to know where they are coming from, look not to their political philosopy, look instead to their 401Ks. Third factor, which I have mentioned in a different context is the fact that technology is getting ahead of us. I have provided passages from the seminal book The Great Reckoning which properly identifies the role of technology in the rise and fall of empires throughout history, conveyed by the term “megapolitics”, and how like a hammer pounding on a sheet of iron, it shapes our future. The middle part of Richard’s article is worth pondering, because it suggests that in the world of the future human capital will be the pivotal factor more so than natural resources or tangible physical things men fight die throughout history up to and including now.

those media outlets are trying to create the meme that this just happens at Donald’s events…

and not only are they doing that…but, as usual, they ignore what the “distrupters/protestors” are doing…they are just angels hanging out at DT’s events when some DT supporter attacks them

same thing with everything we hear from the left…there is never any personal responsibility for anybody…always excuses and try to blame someone else

this is at the center of Hillary and Bernie’s campaigns…white people are not poor, white people do not understand what other minoriites are going thru…white priviledge, bla, bla, bla

I love what Ben Carson said this morning…that we are going to try to improve things and give opportunites to EVERYONE…

not continue to divide, make excuses for bad behavior and pit everyone against each other…

the left makes me feel like I am supposed to see everyone else as “the other” instead of the opposite…they love to incite division…speaking for myself, i do not see things the way they do and they are not going to make me feel guilty for living…

Hillary should win Florida and North Carolina and some other big States as the primaries drag on…..because of proportional delegates I think Sanders still has an shot , but it will go to the convention and we know how that will end…

In addition, there were originally 247 unbound delegates, including the 168 members of the Republican National Committee, who are generally party loyalists and do not support a Trump candidacy. The number of unbound delegates, however, continues to grow as candidates drop out of the race. Delegates are automatically unbound if their candidate suspends a campaign.

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And this is why Ruby and the Mailman are not going to drop out any time soon, as long as they still have spare change in their campaigns.

Hopefully those are correct..if she wins Fl, Ohio, and Ill it would be virtually impossible for Bernie even if he wins some other states…Hillary also has California and New York. The fact, however, that it has become so competitive does not bode well should she be the general election candidate.

As I normally say, polls are just polls…but time will tell how things pan out. Hillary has a huge lead in delegates, and I think it was predicted, that Bernie would have to win 75% of the rest of the states to over take Hillary in the delegate count. He has won mainly small states, with few delegates in comparison. Even when he won Michigan by 1.5% over Hillary, she ended up with more delegates.

I think Hillary will win the primary all the way to the convention, but I see her having to fight like a girl in the following situations:

1- Earning and winning the nomination, without the cloak and dagger bs, AGAIN from her damn party.

2- I believe many of the Bernie voters are also obots. How many of them will vote for her after their beloved, rusted calf is on his last days in the Oval?

3- How ugly of a fight will Trump make it in the general election, with his outrageous remarks and trash talking? (“Hillary is the worst SS in US history, she should be in jail, comments about Bill’s sexual escapades….etc.)

I tend to agree with the caveat of Hillary getting indicted and or Obama/DNC screwing her again which we have predicted. What I find sad is that such a popular President as Bill has no real traction with today’s democratic party. I think he must be so angry that he cannot effectively advocate for his wives candidacy.

We tuned in to the Republican debate Thursday night expecting fireworks. Instead we heard the hissing crackle of a wet fuse refusing to light.

Trump seemed somnolent to the point of comatose. Perhaps he has internal polls indicating that his ever-more-outrageous shtick was finally beginning to hurt him with voters; more likely, he’s decided that it’s time to prepare for the general election. But he didn’t seem to know quite how.

The man once praised for finally saying the unsayable at a Republican debate — that the Iraq War was a mistake — was suddenly talking about putting tens of thousands of boots on the ground in the Middle East. He backtracked on his backtracking on H1B visas. He said he didn’t condone the violence that had taken place at his rallies, and then, when confronted with his own words suggesting violence against protesters, suggested — in suitably subdued tones — that, well, they deserved it.

It was as if he’d read that you’re supposed to pivot to the general, and failed to understand that you were supposed to selectively tack toward the center on key issues, rather than randomly retracting things you had previously said, some as recently as 30 seconds ago.

His closing statement, delivered in the same half-asleep voice, was probably his most electrifying moment of the evening: “So I just say embrace these millions of people that now for the first time ever love the Republican Party. And unify. Be smart and unify.” Essentially: I broke your party. Now surrender.

Okay, so you think Hillary’s emails were illegal, even if so far, they weren’t???

Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict of “Not Guilty” despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation charged. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant whose fate they are charged with deciding.

——–
That seems pretty weak to me. If you are going to destroy someone’s career, and possible future Presidency, you had better have some good proof that she has broken the law.

Trump will not cancel his rally however. He is allowing them their voice to protest and he goes on with his rally. Points to police and tells them to be gentle. If you know anyone attending these rallies pleaes ask them to start the USA USA chant everytime they interrput

Hillary just does not have good judgement. In every darn thing that she has been given to do she messes it up. I think she tends to delegate stuff and forget about it. I have no faith in her now. I switched to (R) and I totally disagree with Hillary on every issue now. I do not see ANY Hillary of 08 in the Hillary 16. She is like a totally different person. Has she spoken about Americans at all during any of her rallies? I hear break down barriers so the illegal can have free flow and break down Visas so they can take American jobs.

Shadow–according to what I have read, there is a special unit in the FBI whose sole focus is on breaches of national security. They are the ones who are conducting this investigation and they are likely to recommend an indictment. There is a debate over whether Comey is independent or is under Obama’s thumb. Many establishment figures argue that he is objective and will make the right call. Some in the press feel differently—they think he is under Obama’s thumb. Seeing how much the Obama disease has infected other organs of government–John Roberts being the paradigmatic example–who has twisted the constitution into a pretzel, it would be naive to assume that these complaints have no merit. However, if this elite group focused on national security and nothing else recommends the matter be referred to the Justice Department and Comey stonewalls, they are likely to quit en masse. My surmise is they have already determined that the law was broken, and I think what they are trying to establish is a link between that breach and monies flowing to the Clinton Global initiative in some grand pay to play scheme. That may be quite true, but I think that is a hard case to make through direct evidence. If they cannot establish that connection, or that the breach caused allies to suffer repercussions, I think their case falls flat. In that case, it will be harder for the bad guys to substitute their candidate in her stead and place. We should know within a few weeks whether this is a live wire, or a dead end.

dot48
March 11, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Hillary just does not have good judgement
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If she had listened to admin, she would be ahead of the power curve rather than behind it, and always on the defensive. If she had only positioned herself as the candidate of change rather than the worshipper of Obama, she might not have 90% of the blacks, but she would have the working class. In that case, she would have the wind at her back, instead of in her face. That was the path not taken. Everyone is talking about a brokered convention for the Republicans–which is highly unlikely if Trump takes Ohio and Florida. No one talks about a brokered convention for Democrats.

As to the emails, that will be up to the FBI and Loretta Lynch=Obama.
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Lynch was never a great prosecutor.

And the Eastern District of New York where she worked, i.e. Brooklyn is a far weaker office than the Southern District, i.e. Manhattan. Her main role NOT to follow the law, but to rubber stamp whatever Obama wants. And the fact that she is black allows her supporters to say that any criticism of what she does or fails to do in derogation of the duties of her office is racism.

I remember awhile back, there was a lot of talk about an email that Hillary received. That she showed it to Bill and he called in old friends that worked with him while he was President, to get their advice on how Hillary should deal with that email.

It was in the news on many sites.

I wonder if this was the tip of the iceberg or had nothing to do with it?

Also, CGI…the ‘concern’ the FBI is wondering about, is if Hillary would use money given to that group, to support her campaign?

Shadowfax
March 11, 2016 at 4:40 pm
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I did not think this was a big deal initially.

To me it is still not a big deal.

Unfortunately it is a big deal to those who have power.

At this point, it appears that not only were top secret documents put on Mrs. Clinton’s private server, which is a breach of security, and made them hackable by foreign governments. But there was a second step to it as well. Namely, the secret and top secret headings were systematically removed. The suspects are Huma, Cheryl Mills and Hillary.

There are supposed to be no leaks in this investigation, so how do we know this? Obviously, there are leaks. My source on this is Andy McCarthy, who is the former assistant US attorney for the southern district of New York in the following article at PJ Media. McCarthy is a legal heavyweight. One of the things he notes is that like me, he did not realize the seriousness of this in the beginning. It is only when you peel away the layers of the onion that you see that it is, in his words, gravely criminal.

Aside from Hillary’s disastrous support for everything Obama, she flat out lied about Benghazi. At this point there is just no disputing that. She has destroyed her fine reputation….only she has done that.
I know the people in the Hamptons that are the Clinton’s friends….I know their politics. What you see is what both Clintons have become….out of touch, shameless Obots. …from embracing people like Sharpton to advocating open borders. I really have lost all respect for her. Months ago I said here that I still liked her personally just not her politics but at this point I’m starting to dislike her. I’m not a racist and I have a graduate degree from Columbia U so I deeply resent the way that Hillary, Bernie and the dems characterize and dismiss me and people like me as low class racists. I truly believe that Trump will defeat Hillary or any other Dem they did up to run. They no longer represent the majority of Americans IMHO.

Now for the next question: why would you systematically remove the top secret markings from those documents? Again, I do not know. But logic suggests this:

As long as that marking remained on the face of those documents it would be obvious to any potential transferee or holder in due course that possession and/or transfer of those documents would have grave consequences, and could even support a charge of treason.

The why question however remains a mystery. And that is where the investigation will hang up, in my opinion. And then the press can label the whole thing a partisan witch hunt by Republicans. As things stand that is the most likely possibility–unless the adverse possessor of the prime real estate at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue let the justice department go forward, so he can appoint the nominee.

If this were Snowden, then idiots like CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Tubestake would claim that the intended beneficiary of these documents was state actors such as Russia and China. Others might assume that given Huma’s blood ties to the Muslim Brotherhood for whose benefit Obama toppled Mubarak with his Arab Spring blather, etc. Still others might assume they were intended for people like the corrupt head of the CIA John Brennan, who many in power loathe and fear. But my guess is they are intended for people in the New World Order, who in my view have become the greatest enemy of the American People. Again, this is rankest speculation, but the practical effect of removing the top secret markings was to make those documents marketable and transferable to some third party or collection of third parties.

If you were reviewing a stack of sensitive documents and one of them said TOP SECRET it would lead to a whole battery of questions about that document and might trigger a compulsion to report it to the American government. But if that TOP SECRET designation was removed then you might find the particular document salient, but you would not appreciate that it was radioactive.

The other reason to redact the words top secret from the document would be to obscure its source. As long as those words remain on the document, any investigation of the breach would tend to focus on the limited number of people with top security clearance. Without those words, it could have come from anyone, from Chief Tecumseh to some pointy headed intellectual at Brookings to Dr. Z’s advisory group. On the other hand, removing the words top secret suggests it was not intended for sale, because that stamp would certify its authenticity and enhance its purchase price.

Shadow, I am sorry it got lost. That has happened to me from time to time as well. And most often on those rare occasions when I have something of value to contribute. When you have the time please see if you can reconstruct it, because I would like to see it, especially if it rebuts what I am saying.

New narrative is Trump rally’s are violent. You have BLM and other anti-Trump groups purposely causuing problems but it is Trump’s white, middle aged, men who are the so call aggressors. Man, media and elites are so afraid it is scary what they are doing.

You get a large group together that are all bonded in anger against the goverment/parties, etc. – toss in outsiders that are also angry, then have the person at the microphone setting the standard of what level of anger is acceptable…you have a ticking time bomb.

Yes shadowfax…by the way, to answer your earlier question, no one but the FBI has the evidence to determine if Hillary inadvertently may have broken the law . My point was that she does not have the protection of this administration to shield her from possibly being indicted (which is a pretty easy thing to do). I would not put it past this administration to encourage an indictment to allow for their candidate(s) to get the nomination with he pretense that they supported Hillary but had to step in to save the election. Lets agree, at a minimum, Hillary should have known anything she does is going to be scrutinized and this was very poor judgment. Also remember that often the cover up is worse than the alleged offense.

Media does more than whip. I don’t remember the calendar date for the following, but it involved Latino children at the time they were being taught songs and obscene gestures to dis Donald in crude ways. Location: NYC. Home of NBC4 NewYork and Telemundo47 who are CONJOINED sister stations.

A Telemundo47 reporter ginning up how Donald said all Mexicans are rapists. NBC aired the disturbance live, complete with the Telemundo reporter describe their beef and announcing the time and place a bigger rally would be held. Then the Telemundo reporter signed off as NBC New York.

I was a young nurse when Aids exploded, I was pregnant with my first child and was stuck by a needle, only time in my career, after I gave a shot to a Gay IV Drug User Who Had Unprotected sex…I was scared, so terrified..
I watched many male coworkers die from this terrible disease, and now it’s a couple of pills and extremely treatable. A true success. Unfortunately the younger generation forgets and Aids is rising, they just don’t understand the horrors. They don’t use protection, especially when hyped up.

jbstonesfan
March 11, 2016 at 7:06 pm
New narrative is Trump rally’s are violent. You have BLM and other anti-Trump groups purposely causuing problems but it is Trump’s white, middle aged, men who are the so call aggressors. Man, media and elites are so afraid it is scary what they are doing.
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It is like soccer games in Europe. Opposing factions can and do get carried away. The question are who threw the first punch and was the responses proportionate. My sense is that these people are not there to listen or contribute. Their sole purpose is to disrupt, and to violate the First Amendment rights of the vast majority who showed up to hear what Mr. Trump has to say–and to participate constructively–and enthusiastically in the political process. When they disrupt the proceeding, the engage in a BREACH OF THE PEACE, and that is grounds for authorities to invoke the police powers. Whatever violence these paid agitators experience is, for that reason, self inflicted.

Bill Ayers is protesting against Trump in Chicago.
——–
There are a lot of unsettled scores by people in Chicago vis a vis that deranged son of a bitch. The more he exposes himself in these settings, the more likely he will become a statistic. He was never punished for his nail bomb attacks on the population, and days of rage. Some undoubtedly feel that justice delayed is justice denies. To be clear, I do not advocate retribution in this case, despite the fact that the state failed to hold him accountable. However, I would not be quick to judge someone who decided for purely personal reasons to settle an old score. As we saw in the movie Witness for the Prosecution, that may be the only way an ancient wrong gets settled. More the deponent sayeth not. A very close friend of mine went to Chicago during the days of rage, and all the protests. She did so on her way back from Michigan. Ayers—son of a wealthy Chicago bank president, preached violent revolution. Most of the audience were too stoned or too passive by nature or just there to get laid. She on other hand was very interested in racial justice and MLK, and she knew that Ayers was the antithesis of all she believed in. She is very talented and backed him down in front of that crowd and he ran away. That is what this jackal is. To the world as a whole, and to all people of sound mind, Bill Ayers is not just a liability, he is a travesty.

Please do not confuse me with a tough guy. I am talking about the psychology of self defense. It is how people who lack size and strength are able to prevail in life and death situations. One thing most people do not realize is when someone is confronted with a life threatening situation, their heart beat will rise to a level where all the elaborate karate moves etc are of no avail. The body shuts down, and the tactics must be much simpler and rely on the big muscles. Anger, not fear, is the great equalizer. The woman I mentioned above had her house broken into by two men with deadly weapons. She got up out of bed, went to the living room and threatened them. Her husband was asleep in the other room, and she believed they would kill both of them. One of them hit her and she screamed back in their face. The other one said, that bitch is crazy lets get out of there. They fled the scene. Later, the police apprehended them, and she made it her business to appear in court, identify them, and make sure they were convicted.

I can’t wait to see what admin has to say about these anti-free-speech protesters who are causing problems because of their own biased interpretations of Trump. Oh wait, are college midterms coming up by any chance? Maybe those protesters who are in college can have their midterms waived due to self-imposed stress.

There is a story about this which is quite fascinating if you are interested in it. In the early part of World War II, as Guderian’s tanks rolled across France to the English channel and Britain had reason to believe that their island would be invaded, the upper class became fixated with the idea of one on one personal defense. They brought in top experts from all styles of hand to hand combat, for the purpose of developing and training people on how best to fight for their lives. What I stated above was the result of that exercise. I know of a Marine officer who spent a fortune traveling around the world studying all the fighting styles himself many years later–no it was not General Carlson of the Marine Raiders. This was 10 years ago. He was one very tough guy. But he confirmed the conclusions of our British counterparts from 80 years earlier. The pivotal role of anger can be seen in successful generals like Andrew Jackson etc., but it is also evident in the classic work of Marine Colonel Jeff Cooper . The elements of successful self defense are akin to the seven pillars of wisdom of Lawrence pf Arabia: alertness, decisiveness, aggressiveness, speed, coolness, ruthlessness, and surprise.

Just watched U-571 a WAR II thriller inspired by actual events of American Commandos who masquerade as Nazis to steal a decoding machine from a sinking Germany U-boat. They end up stranded on the U-boat and their own Uboat is destroyed and they have to play cat and mouse with the Germans destroyer trying to kill them with depth charges prior to their taking the destroyer out with one last torpedo.
It reminds you how brave these young men were.
And then you think of Chicago, and the BLM, Terrorist Bill, the insanity of it all and think of the, lives laid down so this Generation Can Destroy What They So honorably GAVE Their lives for.
Makes you sick, very sick.

I can’t wait to see what admin has to say about these anti-free-speech protesters who are causing problems because of their own biased interpretations of Trump. Oh wait, are college midterms coming up by any chance? Maybe those protesters who are in college can have their midterms waived due to self-imposed stress
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Trump could say something like, well, they are entitled to their 15 minutes of fame. But wouldn’t be grand if they found a better way to use it. Their right to protest stops where it interferes with the right of other people to hear what is being said, and to exercise their first amendment rights. He could then give them dunce caps with Soros name on them and have them removed.

Re: the whole Michelle Fields fiasco. Breitbart has already walked it back, saying that new video from a different angle shows that the man believed to be Corey wasn’t Corey at all, but a “security official” who happened to have a haircut like Corey’s. Breitbart then says that the “injury” they allege happened was probably accidental due to the chaotic nature of that particular scene.

Interestingly, Breitbart didn’t change the title for their article, and buried the correction as an “Update” deep in the bowels of the article. They have 2 other articles up still blaming Corey, and Ben Shapiro is still ranting about Corey and the Trump campaign on his twitter feed. Breitbart also suspended a reporter the other day for innocent questioning of the story.

Re: the whole Michelle Fields fiasco. Breitbart has already walked it back, saying that new video from a different angle shows that the man believed to be Corey wasn’t Corey at all, but a “security official” who happened to have a haircut like Corey’s. Breitbart then says that the “injury” they allege happened was probably accidental due to the chaotic nature of that particular scene.
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Chaotic? Yes.

Accidental? Most likely.

But here is the key factor:

Michelle did not see who accosted her.

So she asked a WashPo writer.

He was the one who accused Corey

Was this an innocent mistake?

Not likely.

The reputation of his newspaper precedes him.

They hate Trump and that bias infects their reporting.

By misidentifying the perpetrator he advanced their narrative.

Try the benign explanation first?

Normally I would.

But not when a newspaper is out to get Trump.

The law of probability suggest to me this was not an innocent mistake.

I think it is imperative to take a guilty until proven innocent approach to everything big media does when it reports on Trump. I would require corroboration for anything they say which is negative. They cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

It’s not surprising to me that Breitbart fell into the trap of initially blaming Corey on the word of the WaPo reporter, especially since Shapiro hates Trump for not being an ideologically pure conservative.

Ben Shapiro needs to get off his high horse and recognize that when you get all these reporters plus candidates, plus secret service agents, plus campaign staffers in a congested area, competing like a pack of jackals to ask their questions, rough stuff happens not only to Fields but to the best of them. It happened to Andrea a few weeks ago, when she was nearly crushed in the reporter scrum. However, and to her credit, she kept her composure, asked three relevant questions, and did not file a lawsuit. Whether you like her or not, her performance on that occasion was impressive, as you will see from this video.